Leopard Accessories

We had a busy Saturday last weekend catching up with friends.  On Saturday during the day G and I went to celebrate our friends 30th Birthday.  We had a tea party, drank some wine and then headed out for a lovely Italian dinner at Aldo's in Brighton.

We love Aldo's and have been there a few times now.  It's really proper home cooked italian food, not that expensive, and the best bit is that you bring your own booze!  Love a bit of that!

I had to rush away from dinner and head up to my friends leaving party.  She is headed off to a new exciting start with her boyfriend in New Zealand.

I had to get ready for the whole day at about 12 so wanted an outfit that could take me from day to night.  I thought a minimal outfit would work best and opted to jazz it up a bit with a big hair style and some leopard print accessories; scarf and shoes (if only I could get leopard print nails to match!)

I often find that keeping things simple with an outfit is the most flattering.  Being bigger I think that sometimes patterns, extra accessories and lots of fuss can make me look bigger, so I kept to simple lines with the sharp white blazer, some dark coloured skinny jeans and a plain black silk top.

(Excuse the background! I still haven't managed to get too arty with the fashion pics!)

January Sales

Blazer £35.99 Zara, Scarf £12 Zara, Mittens similar £19 Jack Wills

I've been so good with my shopping recently and since I don't work in retail anymore I can most certainly say that I don't spend so much on clothes.  

However, writing the blog definitely makes me want to go and spend and buy some fab looking goodies so that I can share them with all you lovely people!

I went home over Christmas and there is nothing better than shopping with mum (especially when she likes to treat me!).

Watch similar £100 Fossil, Gel nails £15 per bottle SensatioNail-Boots,
Gel Nail Light 'Kiss' from Asda

Skinny Jeans £19 Dorothy Perkins

Boots £65 Evans

Recipe: Christmas Cake - Stages 2 and 3

Stage 2 - Feeding the cake:

This stage of my Christmas cake making was pretty simple - feed your cake.  I made an alcohol free cake, not for any reason apart from the fact that I didn't have any brandy in the house and also loooove the flavour of earl grey.  

I dribbled a tablespoon of earl grey over the cake once a week for the 3 weeks prior to Christmas. 

Stage 2 done.

Stage 3 - Decorating the cake (the fun bit!):

I cheated with decorating the cake and have to admit that I made neither the Marzipan nor the Royal Icing.  I bought both from ASDA and am hoping (having never made a Christmas cake before)that these are as tasty as if I had made them. 

To get the marzipan to stick to the cake, and add an extra bit of Christmas flavour, heat a bit of marmalade mixed with water and brush this all over the cake.

I love the marzipan layer on an Xmas cake and have heard a good way to add a bit more is to cover the cake in a thin layer, but then add another disc of marzipan just to the top of the cake.

Once the marzipan is on it's time for the icing and making things look pretty.  I'm not a fan of royal icing so I rolled mine as thin as possible. 

A tip for the marzipan and Icing - once you have rolled it out, fold it over your rolling pin to lift it over the cake as this will prevent it from stretching too much as you lift it.

You can make your decorations as simple or extravagant as you want.  I went simple this year for my first year, with just thin icing snowflakes, glued into place with marmalade.

Christmas cake - Done!

Halloweeeeeeen...

Feeling totally inspired this year to embrace the Halloween Season.  I have never really done Halloween before, as we grew up in the countryside we never really went Trick or Treating, and it just wasn't something as a family we embraced.  Since meeting G we have never really celebrated Halloween either as it falls two days after his birthday so we always celebrate that instead

However, this year I wanted to try something new and embraced that fact that the two fall within days of each other and took over G's party ideas and through a fantastic Halloween party.  I have been inspired over the last couple of years having read the fantastic Cupcakes and Cashmere as Halloween plays a prominent part of the year.  This post especially made me want to embrace all things food for the Halloween holiday.

As I lost my job last Friday I embraced being at home (along with applying for lots of jobs) and did all things party!  I themed our food, made lots of Halloween craft decorations and generally got excited about the season.

I think my favourite additions to the party were the pepper puking chutney, the raspberry and milk jelly brain (mould from Asda), and silver skull candles from Asda.

Happy Halloween folks x

(and Happy Birthday G)